ly versed in all the obliquities of fraud, and skilled to
wind himself into every avenue of the heart which indiscretion has left
unguarded, soon discovers on which side it is most accessible. He
avails himself of this weakness by addressing her in a language
exactly consonant to her own ideas. He attacks her with her own weapons,
and opposes rhapsody to sentiment--He professes so sovereign a
contempt for the paltry concerns of money, that she thinks it her duty
to reward him for so generous a renunciation. Every plea he artfully
advances of his own unworthiness, is considered by her as a fresh
demand which her gratitude must answer. And she makes it a point of
honour to sacrifice to him that fortune which he is too noble to regard.
These professions of humility are the common artifice of the vain, and
these protestations of generosity the refuge of the rapacious. And among
its many smooth mischiefs, it is one of the sure and successful frauds
of sentiment, to affect the most frigid indifference to those external
and pecuniary advantages, which it is its great and real object to
obtain.

A SENTIMENTAL girl very rarely entertains any doubt of her personal
beauty; for she has been daily accustomed to contemplate it herself, and
to hear of it from others. She will not, therefore, be very solicitous
for the confirmation of a truth so self-evident; but she suspects, that
her pretensions to understanding are more likely to be disputed, and,
for that reason, greedily devours every compliment offered to those
perfections, which are less obvious and more refined. She is persuaded,
that men need only open their eyes to decide on her beauty, while it
will be the most convincing proof of the taste, sense, and elegance of
her admirer, that he can discern and flatter those qualities in her. A
man of the character here supposed, will easily insinuate himself into
her affections, by means of this latent but leading foible, which may be
called the guiding clue to a sentimental heart. He will affect to
overlook that beauty which attracts common eyes, and ensnares common
hearts, while he will bestow the most delicate praises on the beauties
of her mind, and finish the climax of adulation, by hinting that she is
superior to it.

And when he tells her she hates flattery,
She says she does, being then most flatter'd.

BUT nothing, in general, can end less delightfully than these sublime
attachments, even where no acts of seduction